Best Tabata Track at Life Barre

Good morning! Hope your Tuesday is off to a great start. I can’t complain about mine, as I am pumped to start my day after a morning at Life Barre.

When I come into a barre class at the gym, I expect it to be different than when I attend at a studio. The most obvious difference is the use of a body bar in the center of the room versus a ballet bar attached to the walls, but the more I go the more I realize how different the structure is.

This version involves more intensity during the exercises and doesn’t focus on just one major muscle group at a time. I appreciate both the gym and studio versions for what they are, and enjoy the variety while bouncing back and forth right now.

We did two full sets of Tabatas as part of our warm-up today! Yup, I said as “part of”our warm-up. I told you… this class doesn’t mess around.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the style of Tababta workouts, they are a quick, effective type of HIIT workout that targets your entire body with a goal to spike your heart rate. There is a specific routine you follow that starts by packing an exercise with as many reps as you can get into 20 seconds, resting for 10 seconds, then moving directly into the next exercise with as many reps as you can get into 20 seconds. Rest for 10 seconds, and repeat this process for the remaining exercises, totaling 8 in a 4 minute time period. Yowza!

(Here’s an example of a 10 minute Tabata workout via FitSugar.)

As we were just starting the first set of exercises, I noticed a coaching voice come in and out of the music as we started and stopped exercises. I assumed the point was to be able to track the Tabatas without having to use a stop watch and kept telling myself “I have to find this song!”

It wasn’t too hard to get my hands on. I simply typed “Tabata” into my Spotify search and found the entire album of where it came from.

We used the “House Tabata (with Coach)” for our workout, which I personally think is the best one.

Cool, right? There is an entire album of Tabata songs you can listen to and play on Spotify with and without the coaching voice. Love it!

Class kicked my booty, just as I suspected it would. I went into it expecting to feel a little stronger than last time, but still had to drop my weights on some of the upper body exercises.

My goal is to push through all of the exercises without stopping or dropping any weights in the next month!

Breakfast

Naturally, I wanted to treat myself after class and had zero motivation to make anything at home. Okay fine, I really just wanted the same pesto egg sandwich I had last time. It was so good!

I ordered it with Udi’s gluten-free bread this time which was so much better on the belly.

(Egg, pesto, cheese, and tomato between two slices with a side of yogurt with chia seeds.)

Yum, and a pretty great start to the day if you ask me!

I have a scheduled rest of the afternoon with a hair appointment across town after lunch, and will be spending the next few hours working on some projects.

See you back in just a bit with a recap of last week’s half training!

Questions of the Morning

• Do you enjoy Tabata workouts?

• Are there any workout specific songs like the ones I shared above you love for classes or even at-home workouts?